New Salem
by SanctuaryAgent
Summary: Based off the X-Files this takes place after season 9: Scully has quit the FBI and works at a local hospital; Mulder is without a job and spends his days scanning the internet for conspiracies. But what happens when Skinner calls them in and asks for help after the death of an agent, Mulder wants to help, but what about Scully? How bad will things get and is anyone safe?


The X-Files Season 10 episode 1

Chapter 1

It was early morning, very very early morning; outside the street lights were still on and the sun had not risen. But on the first floor of a living complex the lights were on and inside a woman of about medium height with shoulder length red hair and blue eyes walked around her apartment. This woman was Dr. Dana Scully formerly Agent Scully of the FBI. She wore black slacks and dress shoes and a blue button down shirt with a white tank top underneath it. Around her neck hung a golden cross on a gold chain, this she always wore even when she worked for the FBI. Her phone rang and Dana rushed over to grab it picking it up and answering immediately, "Hello?" She asked as she grabbed her bag and began to head out the door.

"Scully it's me." A voice said over the phone as she walked. Scully paused for an instant surprised to hear the familiar voice of her former FBI partner former Agent Fox Mulder. She then continued walking hurriedly, exiting the building and walking down the street to her car.

"What do you want Mulder?" She asked as she walked, the cold early morning air making her suddenly realize she had forgotten her jacket in her apartment. She rolled her eyes and kept walking shivering slightly as the cold wind blew against her, causing strands of her red hair to fly into her face.

"Scully, I need your help with something." Mulder said. His voice sounded as though he was hiding some sort of excitement. For the past nine years Mulder and Scully had been working in the FBI's joke department called the X-Files; the X-Files was the department in the basement of the FBI headquarters where cases that were unsolvable or were unexplained phenomenon were sent. Mulder had been working there much longer than Scully and Scully had been assigned to the X-Files to debunk Mulder's work in order to hide government conspiracies. This had backfired on the big boss men in charge because Scully, though a skeptic and strong in her scientific view, had helped Mulder and even saved his life a few times. But the X-Files had been shut down a year ago and Scully had left the FBI after Mulder was fired, she had gone back to practicing medicine; and by the sound in Mulder's voice what he was about to say was going to be X-Files related.

With a sigh Scully said, "What is it Mulder?" She got to her car, and took out her key's unlocking it and getting in. She started the car and continued, "What do you need?" She asked him.

There was a pause and Mulder's excited voice came through the phone. "Scully you've heard of the Salem Witch Trials, right?" He asked. Scully sat there in her car with a puzzled look on her face, just imaging the smile that was spread across Mulder's face at the other end of the phone.

"Yes. Why?" Scully asked as she pulled out of her spot beside the curb and onto the empty street. Her car was the only one on the regularly busy road as she drove towards the hospital she worked at.

"I just got a call from Skinner, the FBI needs us back to help them with a case. I'm on my way to Skin-man's office now." Mulder said over the phone, his voice seemed to drip with sly satisfaction as he mentioned the FBI needing his and Scully's help. "He needs you there too Scully." Mulder added.

"Mulder, I'm on my way to work." Scully said as she waited at a stop light watching for the red light to switch to green. She was half wondering to herself if she was saying that because she knew that if she got involved with the FBI, or if Mulder got dragged back in that they would both get caught up in the never ending game of tricks, lies and pain that they had grown accustom to in the nine years past.

"Scully, Skinner asked for you and me." Mulder's voice was now soft and sounded a bit pleading. "And I won't do it if you're not there to watch my back." He said his voice sincere, causing Scully to weaken a bit.

"Mulder…" Scully started to say as she drove forward when the light turned green. She sighed and said finally, "Fine Mulder, I'll come to the meeting. But that doesn't mean I'll help, I have a new job now Mulder, a good job." Her voice emphasized on the new job part as she spoke.

"Alright Scully, see you in a bit." Mulder said sounding triumphant. Then there was a beep and the sound of silence, Dana closed her phone and changed her direction. She turned the opposite way she would usually go and began to drive to the FBI headquarters. Part of her was a bit eager to return to the building she had worked in for so many years, but part of her remembered the dark shadow that loomed over the FBI headquarters.

Around an hour later Scully found herself sitting outside Assistant Director Skinner's office with a visitors pass on her shirt. In her hand she held a cup of hot coffee that the Assistant Director's secretary had just given her; Dana looked down at it watching the steam curl up into the air and disappear. Her concentration was broken as the sound of the wood door beside the couch she sat on opened. Scully looked up at the door and saw the bald headed man that was Assistant Director Walter Skinner standing with the door open, looking at her through his glasses. Scully stood up and looked at him, "Dr. Scully, please come in." Skinner said his voice serious as he held the door waiting for her to enter. Scully put the coffee down and walked into the large office with the window right behind the desk and the early morning sunlight streaming in. In one of the chairs in front of the desk sat a man with a square jaw, brown hair and tired yet excited eyes.

Mulder stood up from the chair and walked over to Scully suddenly embracing her. Scully did not hesitate and hugged him back; she enjoyed the feeling of his strong arms around her and even permitted herself to smile. Mulder pulled away from the hug and looked at Dana with a smile, "You look good Scully." He said as he examined her slightly longer red hair, her tired intelligent blue eyes, and her beautiful smile.

"You do too Mulder." Scully said looking up at him. She looked at him and couldn't help scanning his face for any signs of the past that most likely haunted him just as it did to her. But all she could find was his charming smile, his tired and yet still enthusiastic and eager eyes, and his ruffled clearly uncombed brown hair.

"Sorry to intrude, but there is a reason I asked you here." Skinner said causing both Mulder and Scully to turn their attention to him. "In the past few months the FBI has been called into a small town in Ohio because of reports of mysterious disappearances." Mulder and Scully sat down in the seats opposite Skinner and listened to him intently. "We have sent agents there and none of them had found anything to explain it, none until suddenly last week one of the agents sent there made a report. Agent Mitchell reported that she had found something, a lead of sorts and that she was going to follow it." Skinner looked very serious.

"Sir, I don't see what this has to do with us." Scully couldn't help but say as she listened to the Assistant Director. "We don't work for the FBI anymore." She pointed out.

"Dr. Scully, you and Mulder have been called in to assist us because Agent Mitchell was found two days ago." Skinner paused looking at the former agents sitting across from him. "At the bottom of a lake with her hands bound behind her back and her feet tied together with a rope connected to a large stone." He said and saw Mulder and Scully's eyes widen in shock.

It took Mulder only seconds to recover from what he had just heard; he leaned forward wrinkling his dark gray t-shirt and rested his arms on his jeans. Mulder looked up the smile that had been on his face only moments before now gone as his green eyes bore into Skinner. "Does anyone have a theory about what could have happened?" He asked his voice serious.

Skinner stood up in front of the window the sun light glaring in behind him. He looked stressed and tired as he shook his head his hands on his waist. His white shirt sleeves were rolled up just below his elbows and his black tie was loose around his neck the top of his shirt unbuttoned just above the tie. "No, whatever that lead was that Agent Mitchell found she didn't tell anyone." His right hand lifted and rubbed the bridge of his nose where his glasses rest. "We have no idea what is going on, and now we've lost an agent." Skinner said sounding a bit defeated. "Mulder, Scully the bureau needs your help on this." He looked at the two former agents in front of him. "_I _need your help on this."

Scully listened to Skinner watching her former boss with sympathy in her eyes. She took a breath and then sighed, "Sir, with all due respect I stand by what I said." She kept her gaze firmly on him even though part of her wanted to look away. "This is not Mulder's and my jobs anymore, we no longer work for the bureau." She finished keeping her gaze steady and meaning what she said. She wanted nothing more than to help Skinner and find whoever or whatever killed Agent Mitchell; but she had to think about her future and more importantly Mulder's future. She couldn't risk ever losing him again not like she had when he was a hunted fugitive or when he had been abducted by alien bounty hunters three years ago. He was too important to her even though she didn't sanction herself to show these feelings most of the time. She and Mulder did have a strong love for one another and it had been shown time and time again as they went to the ends of the earth to find each other. She felt shameful for denying Skinner the help even though she believed it was with good reason.

Mulder turned his gaze to Scully looking at her with disbelief. "Scully?" He said and she looked at him. He sat for a second trying to search her intense blue eyes for some sign that she didn't mean what she had just said. He frowned and turned to Skinner, "Sir, can Dr. Scully and I have a moment to talk out in the hall?" He asked trying to sound polite even though he was still baffled by Scully's automatic refusal to help on the case.

"Of course." Skinner said looking at the two of them trying to mask the loss of hope he had just felt when Scully refused to assist in the investigation. He walked over to the door and opened it for them looking out and making sure his secretary was not at her desk. Mulder grabbed his black jacket from off the back of the chair he had been sitting in and followed Skinner to the door, passing through as it was opened. Scully reached down and grabbed her bag then stood up smoothing out her black slacks as she walked through the doorway and into the smaller office were Mulder stood waiting. Skinner closed the door and left the two of them alone to talk, walking back over to his desk and sitting down. He removed his golden rimmed glasses from his face and took out a piece of soft grey cloth to clean the lenses.

Outside Skinners office Mulder turned to Scully with a frown. "Scully why don't you want to help Skinner?" He asked walking up to her until he stood less than two feet away, looking right into her eyes as he spoke.

Scully wanted to get the right words out; she wanted to make Mulder understand the risk he was taking even by coming to this building. She thought for a second and then said, "Because… Because Mulder it isn't our job anymore. The X-Files are gone, and that is something you have to come to terms with." She paused looking at him hoping her words might penetrate the barrier that seemed to keep Mulder from realizing how dangerous this could be. "You were fired Mulder, you were charged as a criminal and you have only just got your life back. Are you really so willing to throw your future away, to throw _our_ future away? How are we supposed to move on with our lives if we keep getting pulled back into our past?" She asked him looking for some indication that she was getting through to him.

"Scully this has nothing to do with that now." Mulder said. "Something is happening in that town. Something no one can explain, people are missing and an agents been killed. This is something Skinner had to call us in for because no one else would be able to solve it, because it's-"

"An X-file." Scully cut him off and gave him a dissatisfied look. "Skinner called us in because this is an X-file." She said. "Why can't you understand this Mulder, every time the FBI has a problem that they can't solve they will try and call us in. And then they will do what they've always done, when things go wrong they blame us." Scully paused only for a second trying to see if she was getting through to him. "Mulder if we get into this again there is no telling if we will be able to pull ourselves out. I'm not willing to risk everything we have fought to protect; I'm not willing to risk you." She looked at him pleadingly hoping he would agree with her.

Mulder looked at her with soft eyes and gently put his hands on her shoulders looking into her worried eyes. "Scully I know what you're afraid of." He said in a soft voice not breaking his gaze away from hers. "But this isn't something I can turn away from, and you shouldn't either." He took his hands off her shoulders and looked behind her at the door to Skinner's office. "I'm going to help Skinner." Mulder walked past her and opened the door; he paused before he walked into the office and looked at the ground. "I was hoping you would too." He then walked into the office and closed the door behind him, ambling sorrowfully over to one of the two chairs across from Skinner. He sat down and found himself gazing over to the empty seat beside him his jaw tight; he then looked up at Skinner with a blank expression. "Please continue Skinner." He said his voice emotionless.

End of chapter 1

**This is my first story on this site and I really would appreciate feedback and suggestions or criticism. I do not own any of these characters *cries*. There will be more to come this is simply the prologue, I do apologize for any errors or horrible sentence structure. **


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